Shawn Michaels has commented on the latest upcoming scheduling clash between WWE and AEW.
Sunday May 28th will see All Elite Wrestling host the Double or Nothing pay-per-view, which will be broadcast live from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. NXT would later announce that their Battleground Premium Live Event would be taking place on the same day, also airing live and being presented at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Shawn Michaels Asked About WWE Competing With AEW
Ahead of Stand & Deliver, Shawn Michaels was interviewed by Ariel Helwani. During the conversation, it was asked whether the decision to host Battleground on the same day as Double or Nothing was done to compete with AEW.
Michaels has denied these claims, instead stating that the decision was made to host the event on May 28th as this is Memorial Day weekend:
“No, no. Look, I’ll say this, from a holiday standpoint, that’s the thing. In the past, we’ve done well on the holidays. It’s my understanding that’s why we did that. It’s not different than, we used to do stuff back in the day on Christmas and on Thanksgiving. Holidays are always big days. That’s what this is for us. We’re live on Peacock. Basically, sort of free. From my standpoint, it’s just the date was available. The holiday does really well for us,”
This is not the first time that NXT and AEW have ran major shows on the same night. Back in September 2022, NXT ran the Worlds Collide Premium Live Event on the same day as All Elite Wrestling presented the All Out pay-per-view.
NXT Battleground will be the next Premium Live Event for the brand following Stand & Deliver, which takes place on Saturday April 1st a few hours before night one of WrestleMania. The main event of Stand & Deliver will see NXT Champion Bron Breakker defend the title against Carmelo Hayes.
H/t to Fightful for the use of transcription.